Planned Hollywood Millennium skyscrapers project causes concern

Envisioned as twin skyscrapers for Hollywood, the Millennium project would tower over the nearby 101 Freeway and its bumper-to-bumper traffic. Proposed by a New York developer, the 35- and 39- story project allows high-rise living close to subway lines, supporters say, and gives residents a car-free existence.

With Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and mayor-elect Eric Garcetti supporting denser, taller buildings for Hollywood, a key City Hall committee approved the Millennium last week. The project, the developer told the panel, would be "transformative and transit-oriented."

But Millennium's traffic concerns are real, the state transportation agency warned last week. In a rare rebuke of City Hall, Caltrans officials are citing "potentially dangerous" risks caused by the traffic back-up on the nearby 101 Freeway, the result of the skyscraper project.

With the project adding 19,000 gross new car trips each day in Hollywood, Caltrans officials contend further studies are needed. They say requests for more information about the Millennium's impact are being ignored by city officials.

"Caltrans is concerned how this development will impact the 101," said Dianna Watson, Caltrans senior transportation planner. "We need to ensure the freeway remains safe."

Millennium representatives say an extensive freeway study wasn't necessary. And Planning Director Michael LoGrande said in a statement his department "is confident in the level of (traffic) analysis and mitigation required of this development."

The Millennium is the latest project sparking controversy over City Hall's push for taller buildings. Rising in the heart of Hollywood, it would flank the existing Capitol Records building near Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street, blocks from the 101 Freeway on- and off-ramps.

Joining a spate of under-construction projects in Hollywood, the skyscrapers would bring a mix of housing and other uses to Hollywood. The developer isn't outlining what it intends to build, but wants approval for a project that could contain at least 492 residential dwelling units, 200 luxury hotel rooms, and nearly 200,000 square feet of office, restaurant and retail.

Supporters argue the building fits into the so-called new Hollywood, where city zoning laws allow taller buildings, push for more walkable streets, and the neighborhood's three subway stops cater to commuters. Millennium spokesman Brian Lewis said the skyscrapers were "about getting people out of their cars and onto the subway, onto their feet and on their bikes."

"We think the people who are going to live at our project are people who want to live an urban lifestyle that does not depend exclusively on a car to get around," he added.

Opponents, including the dozens of local homeowners groups fighting the Millennium, believe the project will bring more traffic, arguing an extensive subway system doesn't exist in Los Angeles. Speaking at last week's Millennium hearing, Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council member Jim Geoghan drew widespread applause from audience members when he highlighted Los Angeles' lack of rail lines.

Now, Caltrans has joined in the chorus of criticisms over potential traffic issue. In a letter to mayor-elect Garcetti earlier this year, Watson warned the project "will likely result in unsafe conditions due to additional traffic congestion, unsafe queuing, and difficult maneuvering" on the 101 Freeway.

Traffic studies of nearby off-ramps on Cahuenga Boulevard, and Vine Street, Argyle Avenue and Gower Street, which weren't done by the city or Millennium, are needed, she said. Caltrans also cited Millennium's estimations the project would only add 150 new car trips a day to the 101 Freeway, calling that number questionable.

Speaking by phone this week, Watson said the 101 Freeway is already running at "Failing" grades during peak hours, a sign of overload on the roadways, a popular artery that connects the San Fernando Valley to downtown. With the Millennium coming, more traffic studies are necessary, so the situation on the 101 Freeway doesn't become untenable.

But LoGrande, a Villaraigosa-appointee, said this week that officials used a different traffic calculation to look at traffic. Officials at the LADOT said in a statement, the project "was prepared in accordance with LADOT's traffic study policies and procedures." For its part, developer Millennium said that the traffic impact isn't expected to be significant on the freeway.

Lewis also suggested that car trips expected to be generated by the project will be halved, according to its own traffic engineers, since some people will take mass transit, for instance.

Ben Reznik, a land use attorney who is representing the W Hotel in opposing the projects --on the basis that Millennium is being too vague about what it intends to build -- questions why the developer and the city didn't comply with Caltrans request for a traffic study.

"It seems like a tactical mistake," Reznik said.

A final vote from the City Council on the project is expected in July. Incoming Los Angeles City councilman Mitch O'Farrell, who will represent Hollywood, hasn't taken a position. He said he wants to sit down with Caltrans. The office of mayor-elect Garcetti suggested Friday it would offer a statement on Caltrans' concerns, but never provided one.

Caltran's Watson said the transportation agency isn't opposed to big projects in Hollywood, or development. Its priority, Watson said, is the state taxpayers who drive on the 101 Freeway.